Work to demolish a derelict building at 91 West Seymour Street in Kamloops that went up in flames in mid-December could be getting underway as soon as this week.

Kamloops Fire Chief Ken Uzeloc says the City has been working with the property owners over the past four months, telling Radio NL they have been cooperating.

“They’ve had a company set up and on retainer to do the work,” Uzeloc told Radio NL, noting a demolition permit was issued on April 4.

“Because of the age of the building and some asbestos and other materials in it, it needed quite a thorough demolition plan to make sure that all the properties and any hazardous materials are going to be contained and handled appropriately.”

It is still not clear what caused the fire, but Uzeloc previously told Radio NL that the property owner had addressed some of the issues that were identified by KFR, when it ordered the building closed in October last year.

While he’s not sure how long the work will take, Uzeloc says KFR wants access to the basement of the building when its safe.

“At the time of the fire there was a lot of electrical arcing combined with water in the basement, which doesn’t make a safe environment to be in,” Uzeloc said.

“We want to make sure that when they get to that level, we do a very methodical removal of debris in there so that we can make sure that there is no unfortunate circumstances where someone was in that basement and due to the structure of the building and stuff we just haven’t been able to get in and verify that stuff.”

Uzeloc says the property owners will be picking up all of the costs of this demolition work.

“We’re just happy to see it finally underway, and that way we know there are no safety hazard for anybody else or anybody who might be attempting to try and use it as shelter, he said.

“Its a fire hazard and a safety hazard, and therefore it needs to be removed by the property owner.”